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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2008 > September > 23 > Entry

Mexico to inspect cars coming from U.S.

By Jeremy Schwartz | Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 03:59 PM

In an attempt to clamp down on rampant arms smuggling into Mexico, Attorney General Eduardo Medina announced this week that Mexican customs officials will soon be inspecting 10 percent of vehicles crossing the southwest border into Mexico.

Currently, just a tiny percentage of vehicles are checked when they cross into Mexico, where entry procedures are far more lax than on the U.S. side of the border. Vehicles are randomly selected for inspection based on a traffic-light type device that flashes green (you’re free to go) or red (pull over). In some border crossings the red or green light appears to be triggered by the weight of a vehicle as it passes over a scale.

Up to 95 percent of the guns and heavy weaponry used in the ongoing drug wars come from the United States, especially from gun shops and gun shows along the border. That violence has already killed more than 3,000 people this year, including scores of police and officials.

Mexican cartels routinely use poor border residents to buy their guns in exchange for a fee. Texas, with its relatively lax gun laws, is considered a prime source of smuggled guns. Earlier this year, American officials announced Project Gunrunner, which will bring the eTrace gun tracking system to consulates within Mexico. According to the ATF:

Firearm tracing intelligence is critical because it allows ATF and its partners to identify trafficking corridors, patterns and schemes as well as traffickers and their accomplices. Firearms tracing helps identify firearms straw purchasers, the traffickers, trafficking networks and patterns, thus allowing law enforcement to target and dismantle the infrastructure supplying firearms to the DTOs in Mexico.

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